I am on sick leave from work because of bad anxiety & depression. I am on meds & they help a lot but have intrusive thoughts daily. It's like 2 voices in my head, positive & negative. Positive thoughts are fine & helping me cope but the intrusive thoughts are negative making me feel bad about taking sick leave from work & worrying about going back & what people are thinking & saying about me. Any tips/advice?

Op j went through exactly what you're going through for periods of time in the past. I found they never went away. Even during the night I woke up with bad intrusive thoughts anxiety feeling of doom ahead for no reason. I went to doctor he put me on meds. I found that writing these thoughts down made them look less real. I kept myself busy in the house tried not to be alone too much letting my thoughts wander. I would suggest keeping taking meds.. try do CBT it's a really effective way of controlling your thoughts and also let people know how you're feeling they will be sympathetic and try help you. Pm me anytime if u wish. X

Yes I agree thoughts are not facts & more than likely don't materialize. It's a struggle dealing with them.. to look at me I appear very calm but inwardly it's turmoil. I say to myself there are people in worse situations than I am & I know everyone has something going on in their lives that there stressed about.

Sorry you feel this way. I suffer also from intrusive thoughts but more along the lines of I've done something bad and can't remember or there is going to be a war and harm will come to my child. The thoughts won't go away and I'm just imagining things but always remember what your thinking is just thoughts and not facts. And we are worrying about what we can't control.

I've had meds to recover from these episodes and found reading books and getting off the phone helped me. I hope you feel better really soon xxx

sorry to hear you are suffering Amethyst - I got a really good tip from my counsellor which I always use now when I have negative thoughts or am feeling down and that is to say to yourself that you accept that you are feeling low/having negative thoughts - by accepting and not fighting the feelings you lesson them

Also - if you frame your thoughts as separate to you - for example "I had a thought that people were talking about me" This helps your mind to actually distance the thoughts from you - sounds strange but it does work